Victor Osimhen’s record transfer from Lille of France to Napoli of Italy has been listed among the top 10 transfers in 2020 by the world football governing body, FIFA.
In its Global Transfer Market Report, FIFA said that the total amount spent on transfer fees of $5.63 billion was down by $1.7 billion in 2019, a fall of nearly a quarter to the lowest cumulative amount since 2016.
The report listed the top 10 transfers in the men’s game, with Kai Havertz’s move from Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea featuring prominently alongside the likes of Arthur Melo’s transfer from Barcelona to Juventus, Osimhen going from Lille to Napoli, Bruno Fernandes joining Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon and Ruben Dias leaving Benfica for Manchester City.
Also, FIFA said the number of clubs involved in transfers of women’s players rose by more than a quarter, reflecting “the impressive strides being made as more and more female football players are turning professional every year.”
The biggest transfer in the women’s game was Pernille Harder’s switch from Wolfsburg to Chelsea, followed by the transfer of Malawi’s Temwa Chawinga from Sweden to Wuhan Jiangda in China.
The number of international transfers of male players in 2020 dropped by 5.4 percent compared to the previous year, while total transfer fees were down significantly, by 23.4 percent, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a FIFA report published Monday revealed.
Unsurprisingly, English clubs spent by far the most, with transfer fees totalling some $1.63 billion, followed by Italian clubs who spent a combined $731.5 million on international moves. Spanish clubs received the most, the report said, with $785.7 million.
Without giving a specific figure, FIFA said that Chelsea spent the most of any club in Europe ahead of Manchester United and Manchester City, followed by Barcelona, Juventus and Leeds United.
Meanwhile Manchester City reported the most outgoing transfers of any club, with 45, two more than Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb and Watford.
FIFA registered a total of 17,077 international transfers, compared to 18,047 in 2019 and the first decline from year to year since 2010.
The Nation
